Archive for the 'Ben Gibbard' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

The Postal Service was always intended as a short-lived project: one massively well-received album of 10 songs in 2003 – the minimalist Give Up, Sub Pop Records' speediest seller since Nirvana's 1989 debut Bleach – followed by one very brief tour, then disbandment by 2005.

So when chief vocalist Ben Gibbard (better known as Death Cab for Cutie's frontman) addressed Tuesday evening's capacity crowd at L.A.'s Greek Theatre – "Thanks for coming to hear us play all of these songs 10 years later ... it's amazing that they still mean something to you guys" – my inner response was a resounding "duh."

That's because this long-desired reunion – which replays Wednesday at the outdoor L.A. venue, with sissy bounce star Big Freedia replaced by indie supergroup Divine Fits as opening act alongside show-starter Baths – expertly re-creates one of the most important albums for a generation of 35-and-under fans in galvanizing fashion.

Remarkably, this revival makes Gibbard's digitized tales of heartache and alienation, hard-bitten despair but also renewed hope, all sound more relevant than ever. Tuesday's manifestation, featuring original soundscaper Jimmy Tamborello on live production and singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis (formerly of Rilo Kiley) on virtually everything else, felt as fresh as any of the countless electronic-influenced acts of the past few years; Give Up remains so ahead of its time that at the Greek it sounded as if it had just come out that morning.

Having been to a dozen previous editions of Coachella, I know you can always be assured of seeing people in some of the most outlandish attire around. That's especially true near the Sahara tent, where everyone writhes to their heart's content to EDM music.

I spotted two guys in green head-to-toe "Morph Suits" there who could've easily sprung from a superhero flick. Another young man wore an apron emblazoned with an image of Michelangelo's David.

New Order used similar artwork on the cover of their great 1989 album Technique, but didn't play anything from it during a solid Saturday performance that ended at 1 a.m.

Thomas Mars of Phoenix on the main stage Saturday night. Photo: David Hall, for the Register

What a turnaround, virtually an about-face after such an unspectacular opening day.

Usually this April oasis comes shimmering into view on Friday, reaches an energetic peak on Saturday, then crawls to a finish on Sunday, the audience too physically exhausted and mentally shredded to muster much enthusiasm until the headliners appear.

Not so this year, where excessively long lines and an afternoon of nothing special provided lackluster setup for a so-so night – all of which was easily trumped by a very strong (if still not fully great) Day 2 that at times seemed to unify this gathering of roughly 90,000 people.

More Coachella extras: After unveiling more than two dozen event-related shows last week, organizer Goldenvoice has tacked on another handful, leading with a small-scale appearance from the reunited Postal Service at the Fox Theater in Pomona on April 15, the day after the first Indio fest ends.

On April 9, the duo of electro soundscaper Jimmy Tamborello and vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, will issue a 10th anniversary deluxe edition of their sole album, Give Up, featuring two new tunes, led by the already circulating track “A Tattered Line of String.”

• The BET Experience at L.A. Live: It wasn’t surprising at all to wake Monday morning and learn that Super Bowl halftime star Beyoncé has announced her next world tour, her first in nearly four years, dubbed The Mrs. Carter Show and starting in Eastern Europe in mid-April. What’s different about the unveiling is that it coincides with similarly big plans from the BET cable network.

Jay-Z’s queen will launch the North American leg of her outing on June 28 at Staples Center ($79.50-$199.50) while simultaneously opening a weekend of major shows and assorted festivities tied to the annual BET Awards, which will be held for the first time at Nokia Theatre on June 30. (Beyoncé also appears June 29 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, $90-$250.)

The takeover of L.A. Live, dubbed the BET Experience, will bring an exhibit to the Grammy Museum, film screenings and seminars, live tapings of the channel’s 106 & Park program, plus a variety of performances, including two more at Staples: a night of hip-hop and urban-soul featuring Snoop Dogg, Black Hippy stars Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, and critically acclaimed vocalist Miguel on June 29 ($49.50-$99.50); and then R. Kelly with New Edition and the Jacksons on June 30 ($59.50-$129.50).

Also in the mix (with more undoubtedly to be announced) is a Club Nokia set from Erykah Badu the same night Beyoncé takes over the Lakers’ arena, $49.50-$125.

Ben Gibbard kicks off his acoustic set in L.A. Photo: Andrew Youssef, for Stereogum.com. Click for more.

The break-up album has a long and noble history. Some of the greatest works ever were inspired by busted relationships: Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (1975) and Beck's Sea Change (2002), just to name a few. Former Lives, the new solo album from Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, and his first release since divorcing actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, will not join this list.

For starters, it's not really a break-up album. Instead, as press materials insist, it's drawn from eight years of songs, which means it's not an autopsy of a single crumbling affair but rather a slideshow of break-ups.

It feels like an act of deflection, one that carried over to his one-man show Wednesday night at the intimate Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.

Mixing material from the solo album with bits from Death Cab and the Postal Service, the songs were filled with accusations (“You're nothing like the way you look / In all those famous songs and books”) and self-recriminations (see “You Can Do Better Than Me”). Yet his patter sometimes felt a trifle odd coming from someone on the heels of a divorce (“the best way to deal with any dispute is to go right to litigation”). There's a passive-aggressive quality to his material, as if instead of drunk dialing, he just writes another song.

Another four years, another Alanis album arrives. That's how long it took between 2004's So-Called Chaos and its follow-up, Flavors of Entanglement, and that's how long it has taken for her next one to emerge.

Havoc and Bright Lights, Ms. Morissette's fifth set of new material since her breakthrough Jagged Little Pill, arrives next week, on Aug. 22, followed by a tour that kicks off days later in New Jersey. The Canadian singer-songwriter just announced additional stops, including her return to Southern California, Sept. 26 at the Fox Theater in Pomona.

Tickets, $37.50-$47.50, go on sale Friday, Aug. 17, at 10 a.m. Also catch her Sept. 24 at Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay, $60, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

The last time indie-rock quartet Death Cab for Cutie played Los Angeles with an orchestra, they headlined the Hollywood Bowl for a mostly ho-hum show that nearly ignored the extra instrumentation and missed a grand opportunity. There was one glaring exception: the final song, the title track from the band's 2003 album Transatlanticism, orchestrated in time to a tears-worthy fireworks display that ranks high in my favorite concert memories ever, a transcendent moment from a band that strives to create many but rarely connects live.

It was disappointing, then, that the band's performance Monday night at the more intimate Walt Disney Concert Hall with the nine-piece Magik*Magik Orchestra -- which also contributed to the band's most recent disc, the nearly year-old Codes and Keys -- felt similarly perfunctory, with just touches of the magic that made that moment so extraordinary, rather than an overarching sense of specialness.

It's particularly frustrating since the band's best songs could become magnificent given the right arrangements. Yet Death Cab insists on retaining their recorded structure and feel, instead of allowing material room to breathe and change in an orchestral context -- an even stranger choice considering this show's auspicious location.

There were exceptions to the rule, of course. Singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard writes emotionally wrought ballads about love and dependency; one of his most poignant lyrics, which out of context will seem macabre, comes out alarmingly sweet in his winsome tone: "Love is watching someone die / So who's gonna watch you die?"

San Francisco's Magik*Magik Orchestra not only provided strings for Death Cab for Cutie's most recent album, Grammy-nominated Codes & Keys, but the ensemble also backed the Seattle band for its VH1 Storytellers taping.

So it only makes sense that DCFC and the MMO would join forces once more for a spring tour.

Unlike most symphonic outings, however, this one isn't a limited run, with dates kicking off April 10 in Denver and stretching across the country (plus a stop in Montreal) through mid-May.

Not that so many performances should make the group's debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall on May 7 any less special. That immaculately designed room should warm up Death Cab's sound handsomely -- and if Ben Gibbardindulges "I Will Follow You into the Dark," the intimacy may be comparable to Ryan Adams' breathtaking turn there at November's Bob Mould tribute (from which Gibbard had to pull out at the 11th hour).

Presale tickets for all dates will be available to members of the band's official fan club, DCFC Union Local #1138, beginning Friday, Jan. 20. All remaining tickets for Disney Hall, $42-$68, go on sale to the general public starting Jan. 27.

September 21st, 2011, 2:15 am by BEN WENER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters have helped shine the spotlight back on Bob Mould lately, thanks to their collaborative Wasting Light track "Dear Rosemary," which the band and forebear recently performed on Conan. That's a fine tip of the hat, but a special L.A. event just before Thanksgiving looks to be an even greater nod to one of alternative rock's true pioneers.

That lineup alone is testament to the 50-year-old Mould's enduring influence, regardless how few people (even in indie circles) are fully aware of his work. (His life and times, going back to the earliest years of the hardcore punk scene on through the indie rise and major-label fall of Hüsker Dü and beyond, are recounted in his new memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, co-written with edited by alt-rock authority Michael Azerrad. And a bit of trivia: his song "Dog on Fire" is the theme for The Daily Show.)

Tickets for the Disney tribute, which I bet sell out fast, are $29-$49 and go on sale Sunday at 10 a.m.

Missed seeing Mos Def and Talib Kweli revive their Black Star material recently at festivals? No matter -- better opportunities are on the way. The hip-hop duo will first play House of Blues Sunset Strip on Oct. 6, $37.50, then return to headline House of Blues Anaheim on Nov. 3, $32.50. Both shows are on sale now, as is another appearance from Game, Oct. 22, $32.50.